Symbolic URL – Integrating Siebel

This is a relatively lesser known way of integrating Siebel with external applications and it is quite different than other methods available.

Symbolic URL’s enable you to actually open external application inside Siebel Applets. For example it is possible for me to create a screen named Siebel Unleashed in Siebel and see my site inside Siebel application and we will do then when we get to hands on.

Most common use of Symbolic URL’s is to see Siebel Analytics Reports inside Siebel CRM application and it is used majorly in portal applications to display contents of external application.

There is no formal definition for Symbolic URL that I have come across but is quite effective and a novel way to integrate Siebel with external applications.

That’s enough of theory and now is the time for some practical. Here is a step by step tutorial on “How to configure Symbolic URL in Siebel?” and what will try to achieve is a new have a new Screen in Siebel that says Siebel Unleashed and when we click on it we should be able to see Siebel Unleashed in it.

The first thing that we need to do is define a Symbolic URL pointing to my website 🙂

Go to Administration Integration > WI Symbolic URL List view

Click on Dropdown in list applet and select Host Administration

Create a new host record and enter the following detailName: siebelunleashed.comVirtual Name: SiebelUnleashed

Click on the dropdown in List Applet and Select Symbolic URL Administration

Create a new Symbolic URL Record and enter following details
Name: SiebelUnleashed
URL: http://siebelunleashed.com
Host Name: siebelunleashed.com [Name you had given in first Step]
Fixup Name: Default [It determines how you URL will appear in application]
SSO Disposition: IFrameAs we just want to see static site so will not provide any arguments. Now our Symbolic URL is ready let us go to Siebel tools to do required configuration to display it in SiebelUnleashed Screen.

Go to Business Component that you will base your applet upon. In this example I choose Account.

Create a new calculated field and provide the following detail
Name: SiebelUnleashed
Calculated: True
Calculated Value: “SiebelUnleashed” [Name of the Symbolic URL we just created and don’t forget to put quotes around it]

Now we need to expose this on UI in an Applet. You can create a new Applet based on Account BO and expose just one field in that applet or you can copy an existing Applet such as “SSO Analytics Administration Applet” that is already configured with Symbolic URL and modify it to contain our newly created Symbolic URL. As I am doing in this example:

Query for “SSO Analytics Administration Applet” under Applet Object

Copy this Record and provide following detail
Name: SiebelUnleashed
Business Component: Account
Title: Siebel Unleashed

Now go to list column section of this field and provide following details for a lone record that is available
Name: SiebelUnleashed
Field: SiebelUnleashed
Field Retrieval Type: Symbolic URL

Don’t forget to expose this field in Applet Web Layout and make sure you expose it in base mode.

Now Lets create a view that will have our applet. Again here you can use Wizard to create a new view or just copy existing Analytics View.

The Web Template of the new view should be “Analytics View”. I am going to

The final step is to create a Screen which will contain this view.
– Add that screen to your Application
– Register the view in Application.
These are basic configuration steps. So I am not going to waste much of you time in writing anymore of it.

Compile the View, BC, Application, Screen, Applet objects that you just created or modified and the final result that you will get is shown below.

[Due to some problem I am not able to upload the images with this tutorial. I will soon be updloading a pdf file containing images for better understanding. Please bear with me. Till that time you can read it from website. I have tried to make steps as elobrate as possible.]

16 Responses to Symbolic URL – Integrating Siebel

Thanks for the detailed pdf.
I am not able to move to any other view.Is this general behavior.

Also want to know if any body tried the Symbolic URLs using Link or Button as HTML Type.
I configured that but on putting field Retrieval property as “Symbolic Links”. I control become Mr. India for me,:) that means Invisible for me.
As soon as i removed the value it become visible.

You can refer this link.
siebelguide.com/siebelblogs/downloads/SymbolicURL.doc

Thanks for the detailed pdf.
I am not able to move to any other view.Is this general behavior.

Also want to know if any body tried the Symbolic URLs using Link or Button as HTML Type.
I configured that but on putting field Retrieval property as “Symbolic Links”. I control become Mr. India for me,:) that means Invisible for me.
As soon as i removed the value it become visible.

You can refer this link.
siebelguide.com/siebelblogs/downloads/SymbolicURL.doc

yes, you can, specify the username and password in Symbolic url arguments in symbolic string view.
but in that case, check it would be better if you use http Post method(depend on where to use).To do this you need to specify this in symbolic string argument.
By default, symbolic url uses http Get method.
Check the bookshelf you will get detail of this.

yes, you can, specify the username and password in Symbolic url arguments in symbolic string view.
but in that case, check it would be better if you use http Post method(depend on where to use).To do this you need to specify this in symbolic string argument.
By default, symbolic url uses http Get method.
Check the bookshelf you will get detail of this.

Hey Neel, nice post. Worked perfectly. Thanks a ton.
A very informative and precisely structured Website.
Have been following it for sometime now, generally provides me with the answers for my questions. 🙂

Hi
I have a requirement where i am accessing Siebel UCM Application via symbolic URL, and i need to remove File Menu Bar(Top Most Strip with Oracle Logo) from Application while accessing UCM application as symbolic url.